Britain’s international environment minister, Zach Goldsmith, resigned on Friday after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was “disinterested” in environmental issues, highlighting deep divisions within the Conservative Party.
With the Conservatives trailing the opposition in opinion polls next year, the group is divided between Sunak loyalists and those like Goldsmith who feel former prime minister Boris Johnson has been unfairly sidelined.
Goldsmith said on Friday that the UK had lost its global leadership role on climate issues. He rejected Sunak’s attempt to frame his resignation as a reaction to Johnson’s apology for criticizing the parliamentary inquiry.
Goldsmith said he was happy to apologize for criticizing the privilege committee.
“The problem is not that the government is anti-environment, it’s that you, our prime minister, are simply not interested,” said Thangachi Pradesh, who sat in the upper house of Parliament and served as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. , Commonwealth, Energy, Climate and Environment.
Sunak responded with a letter to Goldsmith: “You have been asked to apologize for your comments on the Privileges Committee, as they are not relevant to your position as a Minister of the Crown. You have decided to take a different course”.
Some of Johnson’s allies have been increasingly critical of the government since he resigned from parliament earlier this month in protest at a report that found Downing Street deliberately misled MPs about parties amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
In his resignation letter, Goldsmith said the UK had “clearly withdrawn from the world stage and withdrawn our leadership on climate and nature”.
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